No more fare concession for senior citizens on trains | Travel News

Chennai: Union Railways Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw has said that the fare concession that was allowed for senior residents for travelling by prepare won’t be restored. The fare minimize was in pressure for years until the suspension of nationwide prepare providers for 2 years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Explaining the rationale behind the numerous transfer, the minister stated the traditional ticket fare itself has a subsidy.

Of each Rs 100 spent on the operating price, solely Rs 45 is charged from the passengers, Vaishnav stated.

The Railways had given 40 per cent concession in ticket fares for males above 60 years of age and 50 per cent for ladies above the age of 58 years.

The Railways ran particular trains with a fare construction completely different from the common one when it resumed passenger providers in a phased method when the COVID-19 instances began to say no. No concessions of any kind had been allowed. Now, with the resumption of all common providers the traditional fares are in pressure once more.

In the meantime, the Southern Railway has introduced that it will grant extra concessions for examine tour of scholars. Colleges weren’t in a position to maintain examine excursions for the previous two years in mild of the pandemic.

Railways earns extra Rs 1500 crore from senior residents

The Railways has generated a further income of over Rs 1,500 crore from senior citizen travellers in two years since March 2020 when the help was suspended after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, an RTI response has discovered.

In its reply to a Proper to Info question filed by Madhya Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Railways stated that between March 20, 2020 and March 31, 2022, the Railways didn’t supply concessions to 7.31 crore senior citizen travellers. These included 4.46 crore males over the age of 60, 2.84 crore females over 58 and eight,310 transgender individuals.

The whole income from senior citizen travellers in the course of the interval is Rs 3,464 crore, which incorporates a further Rs 1,500 crore earned because of the suspension of the concession, in keeping with the RTI response.

As for the gender-wise break-up for the general income from senior residents, the RTI reply stated, it was Rs 2,082 crore from male passengers, Rs 1,381 crore from feminine travellers, and Rs 45.58 lakh from transgenders.

Feminine senior citizen travellers are eligible for a 50 per cent concession, whereas male and transgenders can avail 40 per cent in all courses. The minimal age restrict for a lady to avail the concession is 58, whereas it’s 60 for a person.

The Railways incurs an enormous burden of round Rs 2,000 crore yearly because of round 53 forms of concessions it gives to numerous sorts of passengers. The senior citizen concession quantities to round 80 per cent of the whole reductions given by the nationwide transporter.

Earlier, the Railway had tried to encourage individuals to surrender their senior citizen concessions, however it was not successful. In reality, in keeping with a Comptroller and Auditor Normal report in 2019, the response to the ‘give it up’ scheme from the senior citizen passengers was not very encouraging.

The report stated that out of complete 4.41 crore senior citizen passengers, 7.53 lakh (1.7 per cent) opted to surrender 50 per cent concession and 10.9 lakh (2.47 per cent) gave up 100 per cent concession.

Underpass to avoid wasting elephants

To be able to save elephants from getting hit and killed by trains, the Railways will assemble an underpass alongside Palakkad-Coimbatore part the place such incidents are occurring often, the Union Railways Minister introduced.

Multiple survey was being held for extending the railway line to Sabarimala from Tamil Nadu, he added.

(With PTI inputs)